I have been thinking about small groups recently and evaluating how our church does them and how they can do them better. I have just read a book about the emerging church (maybe that would be a good post at some point to talk about!) and one of the things they do well and from which we can learn is their fellowship. Our churches have a long way to go in this area.

Our church has small group signup near the end of summer. People sign up to join a specific leader. The groups then meet once a month on the first Sunday of every month when we do not have an evening service. Each group talks about the morning sermon, shares prayer requests, and then prays for each other and for a missionary. This all usually happens over a meal in someone's home. While they are certainly helpful, they do not seem to be as helpful as they could be. Does anyone have any ideas of things they have seen or wanted to try as far as small groups? I've considered making each group unique, such as advertising that one group will talk about a theology book, another group will be for young marrieds and talk about parenting, etc.

While the Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis are well known, his space trilogy toils in relative obscurity. I just finished reading the trilogy again for the first time since high school, and have enjoyed reading them. However, there is a reason that the Chronicles of Narnia are famous and the space trilogy is not: it is simply weird. The first book is kind of a classic “man gets kidnapped, goes into outer space with the evil scientist, meets odd creatures, and saves the day” type of book, except that the God of the Bible and various angels get thrown into the mix. The second one is extremely strange. The plot of the book basically is a Satan possessed virtually immortal evil scientist follows naked green innocent lady around Venus while main character follows both of them, once again saving the day. In another perspective, the book is about “Adam and Eve” on Venus, the temptation of Eve, and what would have happened if they had not sinned. The third book occurs on earth, where evil demons work through evil men to try and take over the world using re-animated heads and a nazified experimental program on unfortunates while the heroes gather together to fight against them, eventually conquering them through a resurrected Merlin. While they are a fun read, they are just strange. But inside the weirdness are plenty of fascinating thoughts, and I have included several of them below.

The issue of copyrights is a difficult subject in the church today. It is not difficult because everyone is talking about it, but for precisely the opposite reason: no one is talking about it when everyone should be talking about it. Churches can take a variety of approaches for assuming that copyright laws do not apply to them. They could simply remain blissfully ignorant. They could argue that the church is using their money more wisely by not paying royalties. Or they could argue that churches are just special and should not have to obey the copyright laws. But none of these are good reasons. Churches should be at the forefront of those setting the example of following the law in this area. How do churches break copyright rules and what can they do? Read on.

We have seen the Church of the Grave in pictures, now we can move on to the Garden Tomb. There are not as many stories here, however. The Protestants just get along better than their Catholic/Orthodox friends in the Church of the Grave, I guess.

I just finished an interesting book recently, so I thought I would share a few points from it. The book is entitled “The Gods of the Nations” by Daniel Block, who teaches at Wheaton (I hope to write my PhD under him at some point). The subtitle gives the content of the book: Studies in Ancient Near Eastern National Theology.

Well, I have returned to life as normal (almost). I spent my spring break writing my church history talks (the retreat is this upcoming weekend, April 1-4, so I would appreciate your prayers if you remember) and spending lots of time with my wife. We found a game that we have been playing incessantly, Settlers of Catan. It is a great game and I highly recommend it to you. I though about writing a theology of Catan (for example, just because something is probable does not mean it will happen, especially when you most want it to happen, as in, just because 8 is supposed to be rolled often does not mean it will be when you need it), but I decided against it for now. So instead, I have another topic. I have been leading a Bible Study recently in 1 Corinthians 14. We have just arrived at 1 Corinthians, which contains a whole slew of fascinating problems and issues. The issue I want to discuss today is whether tongues are appropriate for private devotions.

This is a slighty different topic than is usual for this blog, but I thought it would be close enough. It is a paper I am writing for my church history class. I have not yet turned it in, so if you have any helpful comments, I would be appreciative. It'd be kind of cool to quote a blog.

Ever since my time in Israel, I've been interested in anti-semitism and Christianity. A fairly common view is that anti-semitism results directly from Christianity, and that in fact the NT itself is anti-semitic. This paper is an attempt to examine some specific acts of anti-semitism and the links between those attacks and the church. It is rather depressing, but a topic that should be thought about. The first post is a little long, but it tells the gruesome details of the attacks. The next two (shortert) posts will discuss why the attacks happened and their relationship to the church.

Here is the final installment of the paper, where I discuss how quoting and meaning interact and where I actually reach a conclusion. I think the conclusion is the weakest part of the paper, so I would be interested in any comments ya'll might have.

Do we really have the exact words of Jesus? Or, is what is recorded for us in the Gospels not the exact words but simply the idea or meaning of what Jesus said? These questions have raised a great deal of controversy over the years. In technical terms, this is the ipsissima verba (from Latin, meaning "same words") and ipsissima vox (meaning "same voice") debate. While virtually all liberal critics line up at the doorstep of ipsissima vox, evangelical scholars are divided. Some defend ipsissima verba (Green; Thomas "Impact" and "Historical;" Montgomery), while most have chosen to go with ipsissima vox (Blomberg 117-127; Bock; Feinberg 300-301; Osborne; Stein 221). Recently ipsissima vox has divided into two, with a broad view (ipsissima vox with extensive paraphrasing and change of emphasis) represented by Wallace and a narrow view ("ipsissima verba with translation and a very small amount of paraphrase) presented by Wilkin in reaction to Wallace.

People always like conspiracy theories, and such theories in regard to religion seem to be particularly believable to many. An issue that has received attention in the popular mind recently is the content of the canon of the New Testament. Did the Church Fathers get it right? Did they suppress books that should have been accepted? Should our canon be bigger? Is there a conspiracy to uncover here?

When I went to Mt. Carmel, I was intrigued that there were so few biblical events that happened in that specific region. But the reason why that was so dawned on me as I was studying Phoenicia. Mt. Carmel was on the border between Phoenician and Israelite territory, as the Phoenicians controlled all the coastal land around Mt. Carmel. The one major biblical event that happened there was the contest between the God of Israel and Elijah with the prophets of Baal and Baal. This contest was not just a contest between two gods, but also between two nations, as Baal was one of the gods of the Phoenicians (1 Kings 18). One can understand why Elijah was so scared of Jezebel after the contest when it is considered that not only was she a follower of Baal, she was also a Phoenician and the Phoenician god had just been defeated.

When I was growing up, I understood the Lord’s Supper as a very private and individual event. The preacher would say a few words from the front, give some directions, and then command each of us to examine ourselves, based on 1 Corinthians 11:27-28. We needed to examine ourselves to see if there was any sin in our life in the past week that was unconfessed, because if there was  we would be eating “in an unworthy manner” or “unworthily”, which was punishable by a strong penalty, as seen in verse 30. The unworthiness was not so much the way we took the Lord’s Supper, it was whether we ourselves were unworthy to partake. As least, this is what I thought until recently when I preached on 1 Corinthians 11:17-34.